I have two questions about this locomotive.First mine does not seem to have much drawbar pull. It will not pull even close to my rivarossi FEF-3. Will it get better as the drivers wear the coating off? And does anyone know what kadee to use on the front of this thing?
A good article is on Tony’s Trains about this problem with the Lionel Challenger. thanks to Tony and Robert Liberman.
Lionel Challenger Tweaking
by Robert Liberman
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Thanks to Bob Liberman for more details on Tweaking Lionel Challenger.
I received my Lionel Union Pacific Challenger, took it out of the box, put it on my program track and put it on the railroad! This locomotive weights 2lb’s and to my amazement the tender weights 1.25lb’s.
I ran the locomotive on my railroad as a caboose hop for a shake down run. Here is what I noticed about this run.
The speed was just a little fast for my taste.
The whistle had a little too much reverb, and not enough base. (UP Challenger & Big Boys had very low base saturated steam whistles)
The locomotive chuff was a little bit too tinny and a little bit too loud for my ears.
I returned to my largest yard and backed up to a 25-car train for the second part of my test, pulling power. The train left the yard and ran pretty well, with a 2lb locomotive I did not expect much trouble with 25 3.5 oz cars.
The steepest grade on my layout 2.5% and it is 35 feet long and has a 40 deg radius curve on it. About half way up the hill the Challenger stalled to my amazement, I backed the train down the grade and took the locomotive to the shop.
In the Shop
First thing I did was to remove the heavy spring from the pilot truck.
Second I removed the tender shell and took out the weight from the back of the tender.
I oiled all of the tender axles and all the axles on the locomotive.
I removed the sound unit and took off the bar that holds the speakers and slid the speakers back far enough to insert a small amount of cotton in the bottom of speaker box to soften the chuff and add some base to the whistle.
Reassembled the tender and prepared for my second attack of the hill.
Test #2 attack on the hill, this time the train w
This article also is on Tony’s Train web site and some of the Lionel Challenger had this problem also. If you engine runs well, be Thankful for sure.
Thanks to Tony and Bob L and Scott for these tips.
For optimum performance the Lionel Challenger requires some tinkering and lubricating. This observation has been conveyed to us by Bob L., a seasoned Model Railroader and tinkerer.
Out of the box overall pulling performance is poor, only 6-8 cars up a 2% grade. The tender is very heavy, about a pound. The weight in the tender can be removed and it doesn’t appear to adversely affect tender tracking while improving pulling power.
Bob also discovered that lubricating all the tender axles and loco pilot/trailing axles increased pulling power almost 40%.
Dissatisfied with the sound, Bob installed some cotton between the face of the speakers’ cones and the floor of the tender. This reduced distortion and significantly improved fidelity. Our earlier observations commented on the whistle’s apparent distortion.
Here is an unedited report by Scott H about the Challenger’s low speed performance we also commented on.
Hello,
I saw the comments about the new Lionel HO Scale Challenger on your (Tony’s Trains) web site.
http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/loconews/lionel-challenger.htm
I just took delivery of two of these locomotives from Caboose Hobbies and they both suffer from the low speed running problem mentioned on your web site.
I have carefully checked the mechanism and have found the source of the problem. On the front engine the crank pins on the first driver’s rods catch on the crossheads. There is simply not enough room to have the crank pins clear, even on straight track. At slow speed the pins hit and jam until the motor generates enough torque to overcome the resistance. This can lead to some rather dramatic lurching of the locomotive at throttle step 1. Once the throttle
Bangert1 thanks for the info i have had the loco for about 8 months but it’s only got about two hours of run time on it.My layout is not done i have only got a loop on a 4x8 with 22 curves.B T W i was pulling a set of walthers gold line ore cars ( 12 ) and 13 40’ box cars.
The Riv FEF-3 is a 21 ounce brute that has a 7.86 ounce drawbar pull.
what should i use to oil the loco?about the only store around is walmart.
When I first received my Lionel Challenger, there was some type of extremely slick coating on the drive wheels that caused it to not even be able to pull itself up a 2 percent grade.
After that coating wore off, it will now practically pull paint off of a wall, and is one of the best locomotives I have (I have over 200).
Thanks to all for the help.I can see this is a friendly place full of good people willing to help someone that is just starting out on this railroad thing.Thanks
Live long and prosper… and welcome to the forum! [#welcome]
As for loco oil, you’ll want something that’s safe for plastic. I’m not sure what Walmart might stock but you could use petroleum jelly (Vaseline) to start with. Just don’t overdo it. Too much oil/grease will attract dirt and can affect things like electrical pickup, as it tends to work its way around.
Next time you’re in a hobby shop ask for some Labelle or similar lubricants. They have a variety of products that work well.
Do NOT use petroleum jelly (Vaseline) on your models!!!.
Order LaBelle or Bachmann’s EZ lube or similar, appropriate for your particualar applicatoin. Walthers.com is but one source.
Removing the weight in the tender doesn’t really make much of a dent in it’s weight. The darn tender is just too heavy. Cacole has the right solution in that the more you run it and get the slickness off the drivers, the better she will pull.
I do know that when I first got mine, it found every bad joint in my 650 feet of track by derailing where the other locos didn’t have trouble. I now have the track in ideal condition and use my Challenger to test all new track [;)].
REX
Uh oh. Vaseline is one of the only things I use for gears now. Does it cause problems of some sort? It seems to work fine for me. (gets things real slick and lasts for a very long time) I use 3-in-1 oil for things like bearings and steam engine siderod joints. It works fine too.
Darth,
When I was a kid, I used 3-in-1 oil for my trains. Then I put them away for about 10 years. When I came back, all I had was gum in the placed that the oil was supposed to be. I started using automatic transmission fluid after realizing that the Special Racing Oil that Aurora slot cars used was real tranny fluid! Then, as a chemist, I began to analyze why they used it. All the right answers and none of the bad. Plus, it is cheap and you can get a lifetime supply for a couple bucks! I purchased Labelle oil for the needle oiler and dumped the oil in my truck’s engine. I’ve used transmission fluid ever since. No problems.
I wouldn’t use Vaseline because its kind of thick. I never really cared for that stuff, even when I was a kid. I remember the mom’s smearing that stuff on babys’ bottoms after a diaper change. I couldn’t understand why, I guess to water proof 'em. Not the right material for the application.
Mark C.
Take a look at http://www.aerocarlubricants.com/Trains/index.htm
Premium products for premium locos.
thanks again to everyone for the help